Because I can only subject my poor friends and family to my political rantings and ravings for so long.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

On Harpocrites

Here's a good allegory.

A televangelist gets up on TV and condemns... oh... abortion. He gives his fire and brimstone speeches, and his ratings increase every week as fanatics tune in and nod and clap and shout and scream "hallelujah!" Then he gets some woman pregnant, and demands that she have an abortion. Naturally, his critics jump on him and call him a hypocrite...

Then, in most absurd fashion, he reponds by saying, "How dare they condemn me for practicing abortion when they themselves practice it!" Except that's a COMPLETE REVERSAL of the entire point - his critics never condemned abortion. Oh sure, many of them do think it's wrong, but they never condemned those who practice it, unlike Mr. Televangelist, who preached fire and brimstone every Sunday on his bafflingly successful show. HE condemns abortion. THEY condemn the hypocrisy of saying, "IT'S BAD WHEN YOU DO IT, BUT IT'S OKAY WHEN I DO IT."

Conservatives, you can try to weasel your way out of it any way you like, but the fact of the matter is, you're the teleevangelist who says abortion is wrong but gets one anyway. You're Bill Bennett, who made a career out of condemning gambling only to be found to be a huge gambler himself. You're Pat Robertson, who claims to spread the love of God but made a fortune off of slave labour in African diamond mines. You're Brian Mulroney, who destroyed John Turner in an election by condemning Turner for doing the exact same things he himself would go on to do. You're Stephen Harper, who thinks it's okay to do everything he ever said was wrong, because power is more important than principle.

At least, AT LEAST admit that much - that you value power over principle, JUST LIKE THE LIBERAL EXECUTIVE DOES. Because it's so painfully obvious that you do, and it's a truly ridiculous sight watching you all deny it by using the excuse, "The Liberals did it too."

My mom would have a perfect answer for that: "If the Liberals jumped off a cliff, would you?" Alternately, if Paul killed a man, would it be okay for Stephen to do so?